The Power's season of redemption suffered another major setback yesterday when it was taught a football lesson by competition powerhouse Geelong.

In losing to the Cats by 48 points Port became the first team since North Melbourne in 2005 to win its first five games and lose its next four.

Now, given its poor form, the Power is poised to join Geelong (1999) and Collingwood (2000) as the only teams in the past 40 years to miss the finals after starting 5-0.

Port is in free-fall and its season in danger of spiralling out of control after another pathetic start sent it crashing to a fourth straight defeat.

After trying new methods at training to try to kickstart it into action, the Power again simply did not turn up to play.

In the blink of an eye yesterday's game was over.

Inexcusably, Port allowed Geelong to kick the first nine goals at AAMI Stadium to race to a 53-point lead seven minutes into the second quarter.

The Cats booted three goals in the opening seven minutes and seven without reply in the first term.

The Power did not kick its first goal until 10 minutes into the second quarter when Jay Schulz connected with a long bomb from 50m. Port's first quarters have now reached catastrophic (in football terms) proportions.

It has been outscored 46.25 to 22.23 in the opening quarters of games this year.

It is an amazing stat given the Power still holds a 5-4 record.

Ken Hinkley's rebuilt side huffed and puffed for the rest of the game yesterday but never got closer than 37 points.

It coughed up easy goals at one end and missed a handful of sitters, including four crucial shots in the first quarter, at the other.

Chad Wingard, Angus Monfries, captain Travis Boak and John Butcher were all wayward with simple shots as Port kicked a poor 9.14.

Geelong, fielding 15 premiership players, flexed its muscle to put on a clinic.

The brilliant Steve Johnson set the ball rolling by quickly breaking the Kane Cornes tag to set the Cats alight with 11 disposals in the first quarter.

He finished with a game-high 33 touches.

Tom Hawkins was too big, strong and good for Alipate Carlile, kicking an equal career-high six goals in his best performance of the year.

His key forward sidekick James Podsiadly booted four goals opposed to the under-sized Tom Jonas.

Premiership defenders Harry Taylor (29 disposals), Corey Enright (25) and Andrew Mackie (23) mopped up nearly everything that came their way in the back half and veteran midfielder Jimmy Bartel helped himself to 27 disposals and a goal.

Small forwards Allen Christensen and Mathew Stokes each won the ball 28 times and the magical Steven Motlop kicked two goals and dished out four score assists.

In contrast, the Power - which started super sub Kane Mitchell on the field and handed the green vest to the out-of-form Matthew Broadbent - had only a handful of four-quarter performers.

Small forwards/midfielders Robbie Gray and Wingard showed their class while Boak (27 disposals) worked hard for his possessions.

But, as has been the case in the past month, Port had far too many passengers.

Early-season stars Justin Westhoff (no goals) and Hamish Hartlett, whose form has dipped, again failed to influence the contest. And the Butcher experiment did not work.

The Power admitted taking a gamble by playing Butcher given his poor SANFL form, and it backfired completely.

The man nicknamed "The Future" by his team-mates looked all at sea in his first AFL game of the year.

He worked hard but failed to score, dropped simple marks and twice kicked out-on-the-full from regulation set shots within 35m of goal.

Butcher's confidence was so badly shot by the end of the game he was handballing to team-mates when he should have shot at goal.

Port has now lost its past eight games to Geelong.

It hasn't beaten the Cats since former captain Dom Cassisi's famous last-minute goal at Simonds Stadium in round 21, 2007.

On Saturday, the gap between the sides was brutally exposed.

Geelong is again a premiership contender.

The Power just needs a win to steady the ship.

Its credibility will be put firmly on the line against the struggling Western Bulldogs in Darwin on Saturday night.

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